Morph

[eyeonthemountain]

I am thinking of making up a character whose only form-unrelated power is Morch (3-4 ranks of it) along with a bit of growth and shrinking (to handle diferent sizes)

For PL limits, it seems like shrinking and growth handle the toughness/defense and such trade-offs easily. But when they do not, could I take a power reserve to make sure I stay at max for all of them?

Is that allowed?

[Dr Archeville]

Uh... hunh?

Could you give an example of what you're thinking of? Because I'm having a bit of trouble figuring it out.

[eyeonthemountain]

Teh problem is that when you downsize, your attack and defense get higher, and when you upsize, they get lower. So, if I started with a PL4 def 4, att 4, tough 4 damage 4 (from strength) then when I am a cat, for example, I end up with def 6, att 6 tough 2 damage 0.

And when I go to elephant size, I end up with Att 2, Def 2, Tough 8 Damage 12.

How to balance this out, when I want the guy to be fairly good in all forms at all sizes?

Now buying strike 6 can take care of the damage, keeping it flat across all sizes, and just my strength for carrying and pushing and the like changes. No problem

I could buy the normal toughness power feat (as per the house rules here) which covers going down but not going up in size as the refs have said on many occasions that they see the PL caps as 'hard' caps. If I could ignore the increased str and con for damage and toughness purposes (maybe a drawback, I could fill in the losses and gains to Attack and defense with power reserve or some such.

Would that work?

[Dr Archeville]

Well, they are mostly balanced to begin with: shrinking lowers damage & toughness but increases attack & defense, and growing does the reverse. In the example you gave, the PL 4 dude remains PL 4 as a cat (in terms of defense/toughness), and actually shoots up to PL 7 at elephant size (for attack/damage).

You are right in noticing that they're not perfectly balanced, though. My suggestion would be to get whatever traits (enhanced attack, enhanced defense, protection/force field, strike) you feel you need to get things more balanced, and Link them to the appropriate power. (Shrinking already has some Extras addressing this, mentioned in Ultimate Power, though our House Rules change some of those extras into Power Feats.) Whether they get a flaw/limit or drawback (or neither) will depend on the final build.